wordfringe
2009
1st–31st May 2009
Reviews
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New poetry in English, Greek and Nepali with film, painting, digital art and improvised
music
Tuesday 12 May 2009
Peacock Visual Arts, Aberdeen [Map]
"I wish I could retell this one memory...". Unlike Cavafy I can retell the memory
of the rare event that took place at the pleasant venue of Peacock Visual Arts on
Tuesday 12 May. Not only was our attention held and our senses stirred by the very
different styles of the English-speaking poets — Grant Fraser, Valerie Faith
Irvine-Fortescue, Mark Pithie and Sheila Reid. We also had poems by the Alexandrian
poet Cavafy, read in the original Greek by Sophia Kouroumali and then in English
in his own fine translations by Alisdair Gordon, and the pleasure of hearing Aberdeen-based
Nepalese poets Nabin Kumar Chhetri and Mukul Dahal reading their own evocative poems,
first in Nepali and then in English. Listening to the sounds and rhythms of foreign
tongues brings home how much of poetry is, or should be, music. Pure improvising
music was provided by Haworth Hodgkinson on the djembe and throughout there was
a backdrop film of Philip Coulthard's interesting and unusual images. A lively evening
artfully put together.
Olivia Farrington
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